Flowers of Suicide
by Loose Cannon Doccy
Summary: "The human mind is capable of anything." - Joseph Conrad - Witness the final breakdown of anything resembling life in Jay Alkain.


**A/N: Happy New Year everyone. As a present, have this one-shot that 'bridges the gap' between TDW and TDW: Requiem. Of course, everything might not make sense, but it will... in time.**

* * *

I smell flowers. Roses. A soft scent that comes out of nowhere and flies into my nose like an angel's kiss, making my eyes flutter open.

I feel the gentle warmth of the sun on my face. It feels like an impossibly soft hand sliding across my cheeks. I'm resting on something soft. A lawn chair.

I hear laughter. Children's laughter. My hazy sight sees three children. Leo, Luna and a third one. She's tiny, a full head shorter than Luna. Her hair is long and red like the setting sun. Leo is carrying her on her back and running around with her. They're all laughing so much.

" _ **His vital signs are failing! Quickly, get him into the stasis pod!"**_

I remember the little girl's name. Aurora. Her eyes gleam like precious jewels and I can feel her soul throbbing like the heart of a god.

The scent hits me again. I turn my head to the left and I see a pair of legs. Long, pale and familiar. A glance upwards sees burgundy hair and a face I recognize immediately.

It's her.

She slowly walks over to me and places her hand on my forehead. Her touch is gentle and soft. Skin like porcelain. She hunches down and lies down on the lawn chair with me. Her face right in front of mine.

" _ **It's no good! At this rate he'll be braindead before he even reaches the chamber!"**_

She buries her head in my shoulder and wraps her arms around me. I wrap my arms around her as well and she snuggles into my grasp. "I've waited for you for so long," She whispers like the wind, and I pull her in just a little bit more.

"I'm sorry," I say without a second thought. "All of this is my fault."

 _There's nothing that can be done about it now. It's far too late._

There's that smell again. But this time it's not the smell of roses. It's the smell of decay and death. She fades out of my arms like dust in the wind and the disgusting smell is overpowered by a far stronger smell of soot and fire.

"I know," I say as I get up from the lawn chair and see the inferno before me. All of New Domino, all of it ablaze. One massive funeral pyre to the memory of any hope of a happy ending. Suddenly my heart beats with such force it feels like it's about to punch out of my chest and I fall forwards onto my knees. Blood drips down from my eyes and gathers into a massive red pool in front of my face.

" _ **We can't lose him now; not after all we lost to get him!"**_

It reflects my own face. My horns are fractured and chipped in many places, and my skin is sunken and pale. I look like a corpse. My eyes have lost their gleam; they are empty of everything.

 _In the end we both end up as the same. A broken mind trying desperately to put the shattered pieces together-_

"-but won't realize that the pieces don't fit," I finish the sentence. Here I am, in the ruined penthouse surrounded by death and fire. It's the only building left standing somewhat intact. The one pillar that refuses to die.

 _Maybe it's time to finally stop._

"Maybe," I say as I look over the spectacle. Even from up here I can feel the flames trying to envelop the penthouse, but the pyre finds no purchase and cannot consume the towering building.

I walk inside of the apartment, slowly running my hands across the ruined tables, chairs and other assorted pieces of furniture without even realizing it. But I don't care, because I'm looking for something specific.

" _ **Get him into the pod, now! He's dying!"**_

I finally arrive at the exit door of the apartment that leads into the massive staircase in the centre of the building. A massive glass roof above me and a gaping abyss below that leads all the way down to the bottom floor. Perfect.

 _Maybe this is for the best. Maybe-_

"-the world is better off without us."

I take a step over the edge and let myself fall.

I see the flames finally sneak in through every nook and cranny as it claws its way through the building as I fall. More and more fire surrounds me as I fall, as if I were falling into the deepest pit of Hell. I can feel the sting of the flames on my skin.

But my prize is right in front of me now. I see it. I close my eyes and accept what I brought upon myself.

And then…

" _ **His… brain activity has ceased."**_

Nothing.


End file.
